Everyone Dies
by FunkyWashingMachine
Summary: The aftermath of each Paladin's death
1. Hunk

It was the little things that came after. Things that took some time to be noticed – the breaking of a routine, the lack of a certain energy.

Things had begun to resettle – plans, projects, people. But they couldn't go back to the way they had been. They moved according to the space that had been opened, and the resulting cascade of everything sliding out of place. Like the pull of soft tissue, solid and liquid and tethered and floating, a vacuum, a change of shape.

The kind that hurt.

They couldn't be the same people they had been. They needed something, and there was only one place left to get it.

Keith entered the room with barely a sound, but Pidge heard him anyway.

"What do you want?" was her acknowledgement.

He paused, he took a breath.

"I thought you might like some company."

Pidge looked up from her computer.

"Yeah," she said. "I would."

* * *

They found Lance in the kitchen.

"Hey, Lance. What are you up to?"

Lance looked up, pulling his head off his fist.

"Oh. Hey, guys. I was just trying to figure out Hunk's recipe for flomptoad casserole. But it's…" he gestured down at the mess, "not going so well."

They eyed the valiant attempt.

"You want some help with that?" Pidge asked.

Lance almost smiled.

"'Need' it is the better word."

He handed her a spoon.

"I mean… do YOU even know how to make this?" Keith asked Pidge.

"No, but it couldn't be THAT hard. Boil it all down and it's simple physics and chemistry."

"Well, I'm glad you're here to help me, then, cuz I was never good in either of those," Lance said, handing Pidge an apron.

Keith picked up a jar. "I thought he always used the little ORANGE seed things, not the red ones."

"Oh. Well that might explain why it's not rising the way it's supposed to."

"Since when is casserole supposed to rise?" Pidge asked.

"Since I added something that I think is yeast."

"Lance… maybe we should start this one again."

Lance looked over at the failed casserole.

"Well, we still have to bake the first one and see what happens."

Pidge snorted just a little.

"Of course."

* * *

"Okay, I guess I just don't fucking understand casserole," Pidge said after a while.

"I think it needs a bit less… mustard?" Keith said.

"I think the mustard stuff is going to solidify into noodles when we bake it."

"I think OUR casserole doesn't look any better than LANCE'S."

"Hey!" Lance said. "My casserole is perfectly happy the way it is!"

"And believe me, we are all very happy for your casserole," Pidge scoffed.

"Well I'm glad you all are happy about SOMETHING."

He didn't sound that glad at all.

"Lance? Are you okay?"

Lance hid his face for a moment. When he turned back he was laughing a pained laugh.

"We are never gonna eat good food again."

He hadn't smiled in weeks. This didn't count.

Keith and Pidge exchanged a glance.

"Well of COURSE it sucks," Pidge said. She yanked her friends in close. "We forgot the secret ingredient."

"What?" Keith squirmed. "You mean the narfitts?"

Lance laughed again, a bit nicer this time.

"Yeah," he said, hugging them both. "Definitely the narfitts."

Shiro would walk in on them a while later, talking, laughing, being gentle with each other.

Just in time to judge Worst Casserole.


	2. Pidge

They buried her on Olkarion so she could merge with the land.

They all agreed it would have been what she wanted.

They were given a seed and a blessing. They buried them all together.

Wrapped there in her hands, it would grow. It would live under the sunlight and the rain, it would bend in the wind and change with the seasons.

She would be a part of the movement forever.

Generations of Olkari would touch their minds to her. She would have liked that.

She would become both life and technology. She would outlive them all.

Ryner suggested they each take a turn watering the seed. Not all of them wanted to.

The grove was quiet. The loudest sound was the rustling leaves above.

There were many Olkari who wanted to join them, but Ryner told them this would be for Voltron alone. Inside, they were all grateful for that.

But they were also grateful that Ryner had come. Someone had to do the work, and it was too final for any of them.

They buried her without the glasses.

"Shiro? Why do you want those?"

He shook his head. He couldn't say it.

That they belonged to somebody he couldn't meet empty-handed.

The ceremony lasted well into the night, even with nothing left to do. It wasn't the kind of thing that would ever feel finished.

When finally they left, Ryner promised them the tree would be looked after. She would be doing it herself. After her it would be her children.

* * *

Nobody had seen Hunk in days. Nobody had accepted a mission.

"Paladins," Allura finally addressed them. "I know you all are upset. But there are people out there who need us."

"FUCK the rest of the universe," Keith spat. "What about OURS?"

"Keith…"

"Yeah, I'm with Keith on this one, actually," Lance said.

"If you can come together, you can prevent anything like this from happening again," Allura told them.

"But it already HAPPENED," Lance said quietly.

Nobody really cared about the rest.

"Then you could avenge her."

But vengeance wasn't enough. They had nothing to protect anymore.

"Shiro," Allura said.

Shiro sighed. It took him a long time to say anything.

"We need to get back out there."

"Yeah, way to sell that, Shiro, I feel really motivated right now," Lance mumbled.

They had run out of love for the universe they were saving.

* * *

It was late one evening when Ryner got the call. The Princess of Altea, no happier than the last time she'd seen her.

"Please, Ryner," she said. "I need your help."

* * *

"Greetings, Paladins," Ryner said on the holoscreen. "I thought you might like to see this."

She showed them a tiny green sprout in the ground.

"She's been doing quite well, even in the bad weather we've been having. There's been a bit of a dry spell, so we've been watering her three times a day instead of one. Once she's about this tall," Ryner motioned, "she won't need us to take care of her anymore. But she's been quite popular with the children," Ryner angled the camera so they could see the trinkets left around the site. Echo cubes, mechanical insects, and a few other things. "They've been bringing some of their favorite things to share with the Friend Tree – that's what they've been calling her."

Nobody spoke. But they started to smile just a little.

* * *

It was summer on this part of Olkarion.

Someone touched down on the ground. A space traveler. A veteran.

He walked with the stiffness of someone who had been broken and welded back together.

He knew exactly where he was headed.

The tree was still young, but it was past its sapling years. Husky seed pods hung from the branches, some littering the surrounding earth.

He put a hand on the trunk.

"Hey, Pidge," he smiled up the tree. "I see you're finally taller than me."


	3. Lance

It wasn't the first time the device had failed.

"What did you do wrong THIS time?" Keith snapped.

"You know, it's a bit harder than it looks!" Pidge growled back.

"Yeah, well this is the fifth time in a row! Get it together already!"

Hunk stepped between them.

"Don't you fucking yell at Pidge."

"Hunk, there's no need for that kind of talk," Shiro said.

"Well there's no need for that kind of BITCHING!" Hunk thumbed at Keith.

"There's PLENTY of need!" Keith spat back. "We're about five seconds from no more universe and we need to get this shit DONE!"

"Well your bitching isn't helping!" Pidge barked over her shoulder.

"Yeah, well, I don't know what else to do!"

"Just shut the fuck up! Maybe you'll be fucking surprised to know that I'm not really in a good place to do this!"

"Well maybe YOU'LL be fucking surprised that NOBODY'S in a fucking good place!"

"NO! I'm NOT surprised! But maybe you can stop treating me like fucking SHIT!"

"Well maybe if you had done your fucking job right nobody would be fucking DEAD!"

Every breath stopped. Something fell, clanking through the guts of the machine.

"That. Is uncalled for," Hunk glared down at Keith.

"Keith, come on, let's take a walk," Shiro said hesitantly.

"No. You guys aren't going ANYWHERE," Hunk growled, putting himself in front of Keith. "Say that again. Say that to ME."

"You really want me to?"

"I just want you to shut your little bitch mouth and never talk to Pidge like that again."

"He didn't mean it," Shiro said quickly.

"Yes he did," Pidge muttered.

"Just… everyone shut up, okay?" Keith curled defensively.

"You're gonna apologize for that," Hunk said.

Keith mumbled something.

"Louder!"

"FUCK YOU!"

"Do you seriously want me to punch you right now?"

"Fine!"

Hunk punched him straight in the face.

When Keith got up there was blood streaming out his nose. In the quiet they could hear the drops on his coat.

Not long ago they would have thought it was a lot of blood.

They all stared at each other. Then Shiro heaved a breath.

"Is this really what he would have wanted?"

Keith looked at his hand full of blood. Hunk opened his fist.

Lance wanted people to laugh with and storm clouds to look at and parades in his honor and fart jokes at his funeral.

Lance wanted love.

They didn't give a shit about the parade.

"Aren't WE a bunch of losers."


	4. Keith

He had to put it down.

He had to put it down.

They needed him. They needed him more than ever.

He didn't want to be needed anymore.

He couldn't put it down.

It shook in his hands. He could hear his own blood.

There was a knock at the door.

"Shiro?"

It was Lance. Shiro took a moment.

"Come in."

He was carrying a tray of goo and a juice box.

"Thought you might be hungry," Lance said.

He should have been, but he wasn't.

"Thanks."

"You, uh… you doing okay?"

Shiro really didn't know how to answer that.

Lance sat down beside him.

"It's not your fault, you know."

Shiro clutched the knife.

"He trusted me."

Lance looked over at him.

"And he would still trust you now. You didn't do anything wrong."

There was a difference between doing something wrong and not doing enough. A very slight difference.

"I promised I would be there for him. No one else–" he stopped.

"And it meant everything to him," Lance said. "That's why he wanted to be there for YOU."

Maybe if he had meant less, it wouldn't have happened.

"Hey, look, Shiro. We all love you. We all would have done it."

"Well, I never wanted that," Shiro said.

"Yeah, well… I wish I knew how to fix any of this."

"It's not your job to fix anything."

"And it's not YOUR job to fix EVERYTHING."

Shiro looked down.

"Please, Shiro," Lance said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Let somebody love you for ONCE."

All his life he had tried to deserve it. He wasn't about to deserve it now.

He didn't want to cry in front of someone who looked up to him. But he was never one to get what he wanted.


End file.
